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Hanover News

Dartmouth College Links

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

The "Committee for the Abolition of Student Assembly," which like any good revolutionary group, uses Mozilla Thunderbird instead of the facist Microsoft Outlook for its e-mails, recently sent this message out to campus:

DO YOU THINK THAT STUDENT ASSEMBLY SHOULD BE ABOLISHED AND REPLACED WITH A TOWN MEETING?

PLEASE READ BELOW AND REPLY "YES" OR "NO" TO THIS BLITZ.

Did you know that towns as large as 25,000 people run themselves directly democratically?

With the SA elections happening at this very moment, the question of whether or not SA is a useful or necessary institution seems more relevant and important than ever.

Does an intelligent campus of roughly 4,200 students really need representatives, or can we represent ourselves?

The Committee for the Abolition of Student Assembly would like to know if you think that our representative student government, marred with internal disputes and absorbed with personal and organizational interests, should be replaced with a New England town meeting format.

- Direct democracy: you are in control- Town meetings have nearly 400 years of history as proof of their effectiveness- The student body takes responsibility for its own legislative successes and failures- Every student can easily submit legislation- Every student can easily vote- Every student is considered a political equal- No more big egos, no more r�sum� padding

The Committee for the Abolition of Student Assembly, if there is enough student support, would like to explore how, within the College's rules, SA can be replaced with a town meeting. This requires some planning and a great deal of student input; that's why we're asking you for your opinion.

If enough students reply to this blitz with their support, we'll dedicate our time and energy to finding out how to make it happen.